Hong Kong Hogmanay

We spent a night in Auckland before flying on to Hong Kong on 30 December for 2 nights.

We arrived late afternoon and tried to go up on the Peak Tram for a night-time view of the lights of the city. There was a massive queue so we went for a few drinks instead to Lan Kwai Fong which is the “lively” part of the city.

The next day we went on a walking tour of the old parts of the city. It’s very hilly with lots of steep streets and steps.

Because of its steepness, Pottinger Street was paved, unevenly, with stone slabs to make it easier to ascend and descend and to allow rainwater to flow down either side.

To get people to and from the centre from the skyscrapers higher up, the Mid-level escalator is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. It’s 800m long in total and rises over 135m from bottom to top.

Trees grow in the spaces between the concrete. There’s a surprising amount of greenery and small parks.

We arranged to meet a friend from our Namibia trip. Iris lives on the South Side of Hong Kong island. It was really nice to see her again and she drove us to Aberdeen harbour. As a Scot, I felt right at home. The skyscrapers weren’t made of granite though. The plan was to take a boat trip for lunch. Little did we know that it was on Iris’ own yacht!

Not like the Chinese restaurants in the original Aberdeen!

On the boat

We cruised to “Middle island” for lunch. This was a series of seafood dishes cooked by the captain of the boat. The food was so fresh and didn’t need any sauces. We had shrimps, then a type of scallop. A fish called “horse friend” in Chinese is only available locally for a very limited period at this time of year. So it doesn’t have an English name. It was a very tasty, oily fish. I was then very brave and sampled the “Abalone” shellfish which looks a bit like a mussel. This is a very expensive Chinese delicacy. We finished with refreshing Chinese cabbage, all washed down with a bottle of red wine. We learned from our Namibia trip that Iris, being small, can consume her blood volume in red wine.

We took a trip to Stanley and then got the bus back to Hong Kong.

We still couldn’t face the queues for the Peak Tram. (Maybe they need to build an “off-peak” tram). So we took a taxi to Victoria Peak. There is a massive multi-level shopping / entertainment complex at the top. We just wanted to get outside for the view.

Great views, but the usual smog hung over the city. We waited until after dark to see the multi-coloured lights on the buildings. Some have fancy animations. My camera battery died though, so sorry for the lack of photos.

Good to have a Scotch on New Year’s day. Lots of very old trams still in operation. Apparently they are the only double decker trams in the world still running.

City of contrasts

Some trees grow on the walls.

It’s good to have a Scotch on New Year’s day…

We visited the “Wan Chai” Chinese market. I find it really interesting to see the unusual animals and vegetables.

All of the pieces of the pig are available including the uniquely male parts (top left).

We took the Star Ferry to Kowloon. Not quite the same as Iris’ boat…

Dragon procession on New Year’s day. They didn’t seem scared to meet the Welsh one.

1881 Heritage building with lots of very posh Christmas decorations.

The Time Ball tower dropped the ball at 1pm every day from 1885 to 1933 so that passing ships could calibrate their chronometers. The time signal was sent from the observatory by wire to the time ball tower to control the dropping of the ball. Very impressive and it seems a shame that the expression “dropping the ball” is now a bad thing.

Wind forecasts were very important to sailors. Different shapes were hoisted from this pole to indicate the wind strength forecast so sailors had an excuse to enjoy Hong Kong nightlife in the port instead.

There are surprising few private cars in Hong Kong. Lots of red Nissan taxis though. So many people live in such as small area in massive skyscapers that there is no space to park cars. I guess many of the locals are also too poor to afford a car. So most cars you see are luxury cars belonging to the rich who can afford a house with a parking space. You see lots of Mercedes, BMWs, Ferraris etc. Tesla luxury electric cars are also very common.

Next we caught our flight to Yangon (Myanmar) to start the more adventurous stage of our trip.